


A Way Out

by TheShippingRoyalty



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Character Death, Don't Have to Know Canon, Don't Read This, Gen, Mental Anguish, Not Beta Read, Past Abuse, Past physical abuse, Robot Suicide, Self-Destruction, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Working Out My Feelings Through Fic, drunk robots, past mental abuse, probably very out of character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:21:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23399128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShippingRoyalty/pseuds/TheShippingRoyalty
Summary: Life had always sucked. It never went well and it wasn't fair. Although, even despite all of this... It wasn't until that moment that Hare had ever considered the idea of saying no, saying he wouldn't do it anymore...Life had always sucked, but he had never considered a way out.
Kudos: 3





	1. Standing Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate title(s):
> 
> Life Sucks.  
> Lightning, Laughter, and Guilt.  
> Some Day Soon.

_Hare_

_Some day soon, I'm going to get to a place where things are better. We all will. ...We already stand alone, even though we're all right there, side by side. We were never supposed to stand alone._

_Maybe that's another reason everything hurts so much._

-

Life sucks. It's always sucked. For some, it sucks more. For some, it sucks less. But it always sucks somehow, for everyone and everything in existence. One time I had attempted a plan for running away and never going back, but I know that my usual traits won't keep me running for long, especially not if I went along with the part of the plan that meant bringing Jack along...

Speaking of, the laughter is loud today, louder than usual. And persistent.

...That's not good, I think.

As much as I want to stay where I am, I decide that I should go check on him. With Jack, you never know what's coming next. You always gotta keep an eye on him, don't turn away for even a second. I knew that even before the lightning, and I still...

Before I realize it, I'm at Jack's door. "Jacky? You in here?"

"Hehe!"

"Yeah, you're here alright..." I murmur and move to sit down at a safe distance. I don't like treating him like an animal, but... He does a lot of unpredictable things, some of which end in himself or others getting hurt.

I start thinking again and I'm lost in my thoughts within seconds. I snap out of it when Jack says something that sounds like a question, but that I don't understand. I look over at him, confused.

"Erah, yako uoy era?" He repeats.

"...What?"

He stares for a moment, seeming like he knows what I was thinking of. It’s pretty creepy, but... I try to just shake the feeling away. “...Jacky, I have no idea what you just said, but I have a feeling you’re reading my mind or something right now.”

He giggles at that and grins, sounding more like himself than he has in a long time. It startles me.


	2. Noticed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hare overhears some chatter between Locksmith, Skull, Jack, and Weed.
> 
> Alternate title(s):  
> Oh Shit, They Know!  
> A Thing.  
> Difficulty.

_Hare_

_A day later_

_-_

"...Am I the only one who's noticed that Hare has been acting strange?"

"No." "Not at all." "Hehehe, epon!"

So they've all noticed.

...Shit.

"I'm... Concerned."

Skull sighs. "And?"

"I think we should try to find out what's going on."

"Deew, nalp doog!"

"I shall distance from the conversation now, I am uninterested in such things.."

"We noticed, dinosaur," Skull sighs again, "And Weed... You said try to find out what's going on? I think you mean "go on a wild goose chase and realize that he has the same bad habits as you." He's probably just got to much gasoline in his system to act normal.”

”Well, I guess... But if something that’s worse than just bad habits is going on and we don’t help him, or try to catch it, then...”

”Then _what?_ I doubt that he’ll be able to hide for long if he’s inju-“

” _I’m_ not _talking about simple injury_. ...There’s this... _Thing._ That almost everything that is alive or sentient can do, especially if it’s able to feel emotions or learn like you guys can.”

”...What?” “Tahw???”

”...It- Just-Just try to follow along, okay? There’s this thing that hu-... P-... _Sentient beings_ can experience. It’s called...”

No way am I sticking around for more. If what I’m feeling can be explained simply, and felt by more than just me... I’ve spent so much time thinking on any possible words or things I could use to label or sort or explain this to myself and none of it has fit, none that I have seen before anyway.

So, if Weed can explain it with no difficulty, when I have had to struggle to understand even a small bit of what’s happening... Well. I won’t be very pleased.

...I wonder when the next time I can sneak off will be. Maybe drowning my feelings in gasoline will help.


	3. Explanations and Thoughts Of.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: The first talk of depression and suicide is in this chapter. The first vague nod to any sort of abuse is also in this chapter.
> 
> Weed explains the concept of depression to a robot. The robot understands/knows more than he should.
> 
> Alternate title(s):  
> Weed Thinks (A Lot).  
> The Past Was...  
> Dead Men Don’t Smile.

_R. Weed_

_Five Seconds Later_

-

  
“Depression.”

”...” Skull stares blankly at me.

”Is that stare to say you think I’m crazy, or to say you don’t know what it is?”

”... _What the fuck is that, Weed?_ ”

”Ah... Okay. So in humans, it’s an overwhelming negative feeling that makes it hard to want to stay alive, take care of yourself, or exist. You want to do nothing, some with it have tried to kill themselves... It’s never fun, in fact it makes everything that you ever found fun start to be boring or annoying to you.”

”...Oh.”

“Some signs that I had showed at one point for it are... Showing in Hare. And it’s real obvious that he hasn’t ever done much to take care of himself, but that he’s doing things to make it worse recently. Which is...another thing that humans tend to do when they have depression.”

Skull’s expression changes for a moment, but I can’t tell why... I don’t know much about Skull’s personal experiences or his past, but I’ve heard things. From my understanding, Becile treated them like shit.

That’s all I really need to know about that particular topic, but... Maybe Skull... Felt something similar to my description back then? Maybe still does. ...Wouldn’t surprise me, actually.

He’s still pretty obsessed with the guy, though I wouldn’t say he’s actually obsessed... Just stuck. Fixated on. It’s creepy sometimes, watching the way he does everything like he still needs to make a dead man happy, keep him pleased. I... Don’t want to know why he thinks it still matters. If that story about ghosts from Hare was true, then who’s to say that Becile wouldn’t come back too?

...I don’t want to think about that.

”So... Why is this important to me?”

”Does Hare still know where any tools or anything is? Any at all?”

”Just the one he insists has a name.”

”The power drill? ...We gotta find a way to get him away from it and hide it from him.”

”Why?”

”You know how I mentioned humans sometimes try to end their own life when they have depression?”

”...Oh.”

”Yeah. So, let’s go save him from himself.”

”...Flesmih truh annog si eraH?” Jack speaks up. We had forgotten that he was here. ...Fuck.

”Fuck.” Skull is thinking the same thing, so it seems.

...How the hell are we gonna get him to understand _any_ of this?

”...Won deirrow mi.”

”......What?” “Wha..?”

”Yako eb eraH lliw?”

”...I don’t... What??”

“..Um... Oh! Hare will be okay, don’t you worry. We’ll make sure of it.”

”Doog!”

...I really hope we can keep that promise...


	4. Flash-Forward

_No One_

_A Month Later_

_-_

“HARE?! _HAAARE_!! WHERE ARE YOU?!” Jack is screaming as loud as he can, oil dripping down his face. Weed is panicking, checking everywhere he can think of, even daring to go check the Attic where Dee resides.

”Dee?! Please, I know you don’t like me, but-“

”Go away.”

”-Hare is in danger, we can’t find him-“

”I thought I- What?”

”-We think he might try to take himself apart, he left a note! H-He said not to look for him, he said-“

For the first time in a very very long time, the door is fully opened and out comes Dee. “ _Gimme the note._ ” She demands, and Weed leads her to Skull, who is currently searching also. He is around the house, looking in everywhere he can fit himself to see if Hare managed to get inside any of the secret spots in the house.

Skull hands the note over to her, though he is more focused on searching for Hare than the note...

She stares at it for a while, reading it.

”When did you find this? When was the last time you saw him?” She sounds like she wants them to hurry.

”An hour ago, and two days ago.” Weed said, scrambling to check back in Hare’s usual hiding room.

”Where was he?”

-

At a scrapper shop a long way away from home, Hare is “performing” for an audience outside. He claimed he’d help gain customers for the shop if they would give him access to any of the tools he’d need, and a locked room, since he might cause some harm if he did what he was planning on in the open.

The people agreed, they needed the money, and Hare had managed to make himself look trustworthy.

So, here he was, making a big show of how the place had “helped him” with some things that had never actually been wrong, but that the shop had definitely been capable of repairing for him.

When the shop was near closing time he stepped down from the small pedestal with a bow and a grin, and walked inside. He was directed to the room they’d gotten ready for him, the one with the tools he’d asked for.

”Thank you. ...Don’t open the door until a few weeks have gone by, like I said. I’ll be in there still, though not in one piece... You can feel free to scrap what’s left as long as you don’t screw with the Core.”

-

They search for a week until they find a small advertisement in town for a shop that Weed knew all to well... Some of the cloth from Hare’s glove was stuck on the nail keeping the add up.

”Oh, no...” He mutters, going pale. “He went to the scraps shop...”

”Damn it!” Dee curses.

”Lightning’s curse, Hare! What have you done...?” Jack starts crying again.

”...This is... An unfortunate development, to be certain...” Locksmith frowns.

Skull is silent, but when they turn to look at him, he’s crying silently.

”Skull..?”

”...That’s another person that I’ll never get to see again...”

”...Are you-“

”...Why does death have to exist... Why do the ones I care about always _always_ end up hurt or dead or missing...?”

That’s when they all realize.

Becile died, and Skull had always called him Master or Father. Jack got struck by lightning and nearly died from it, and though they never talked before the lightning strike, Skull had tried to help him when he knew it was safe to. Dee was always in the attic, hiding herself away, he claimed she was his sister. ...Weed had gone missing more than once, and Locksmith had almost gotten himself taken apart before...

Skull wiped the oil off his face and pretended he hadn’t just said any of that, going back to pretending to be fine, pretending to hate all of them...

”.........We should go see if he’s there, a-at the shop still... We might still be able to find him.”


End file.
